20 August 2006

The arrest of Pacenza

The solidarity shown in prison by certain parliamentarians for Franco Pacenza who has been arrested for abuse of power while holding public office is astonishing. The parliamentarians belong to the Unione in Calabria. Franco Pacenza is the DS Leader of the Regional Council in Calabria.

Above all what is astonishing is that this happened even though interviews are forbidden under the conditions imposed by the investigating magistrate and there was no specific authorisation.
The same behaviour of challenge and countering the judicial system was displayed in 1985 by Bettino Craxi. On that occasion the Milan magistrates arrested the first politician in Tangentopoli, Antonio Natali who collected bribes for the parties and politicians in Milan.
At that time the result was that the investigation was stopped because Antonio Natali became a candidate and was elected to Parliament and thus was covered by Parliamentary immunity.

Pacenza’s guilt has still to be proved and he must be considered innocent until there is a definite guilty verdict. But this is a personal affair for him that must follow the judicial process.
What is disquieting is the “political message” that the “group visit” of the politicians sends out. It is a message that is equal to “we are on your side”, not on the side of justice that is trying to get to the truth, but on the side of “one of us” who is being defended by the “group” without regard to specific knowledge of the details of the accusation.

The consequence of these “political attacks” against the magistracy are visible to all: what is badness in our country is represented by the judges who want the law to be respected, not by those who commit crimes. It is with this logic that it has been possible to enlarge the pardon to cover corruption.

And Franco Pacenza, the person being investigated, if he is not found to be innocent, has already got a bonus of three years of prison discounted, since the pardon is valid even for crimes that are verified subsequently, if they were committed before May 2006.
The demonstration for Francesco Pacenza in front of the prison in Cosenza by parliamentarians belonging to the Unione in Calabria seems to be a contraposition between the powers of the State.

A judicial fact should not be transformed into a political fact. What is happening to Pacenza must remain a procedural affair to be resolved in the judicial system. The politicisation of being held in prison on remand is transforming a judicial case into the umpteenth attack on the Magistracy and what is more it is being done by parliamentarians in the government grouping.
For all these reasons, the parliamentarians who demonstrated have done well to talk about resignations. They should not ask for the resignation of Antonio Di Pietro because he has denounced their behaviour, but they should be asking for their own resignations.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice